Speakers

HD Summit 2012 speakers, in order of appearance:

Larry Smith
Larry and SMITH Magazine are best known for launching the Six-Word Memoir® project, which is a bestselling series of five books and a global phenomenon online. Anticipating the micro blogging explosion, SMITH originally launched the Six-Word Memoir project in November 2006 in partnership with Twitter with a simple challenge: "Can you tell your life story in six words?" In the world of twitter and texting, Larry looks to engage one to think creatively. Larry has written for such publications as The New York Times, Men's Journal, Popular Science, Slate, and Salon. He was also the senior editor at ESPN The Magazine, executive editor at Yahoo! Internet Life, articles editor at Men's Journal, founding editor of P.O.V., editor-in-chief of Egg, and an editor of Dave Eggers' Might magazine

Dan Lyons
Technology Columnist at Newsweek, (previously with Forbes) Dan Lyons mixes the business insight of Fast Company with the satire of The Onion to explore how the late Steve Jobs brought Apple from near-bankruptcy to cultural dominance. Razor sharp and obsessively knowledgeable, Lyons shares eight rules from Apple that can be applied to any company serious about game-changing innovation. Dan received a B.A. from Bradford College and an M.F.A. from University of Michigan. He has 25 years invested in tech journalism and has written for a variety of technology publications such as the New York Times Magazine, GQ, Vanity Fair, and Wired. He also wrote one of the world's most popular and insightful Apple-centric blogs for five years.

Gillian Tett
Award winning journalist and Financial Times' US Managing Editor, as well as author of Fool's Gold. Gillian, a preeminent authority on capital markets, is widely credited with being the first to cover the credit crunch in the mainstream press as much as three years before anyone else. She has won three prestigious journalism awards for recognition of this work: Journalist of the Year, British Press Awards, 2009; British Business Journalist of the Year, British Press Awards, 2008; and Wincott Prize, 2007. Her remarks are always up to the minute and forward thinking. Fool's Gold, Gillian's book, is about the Inside Story of J.P. Morgan and "How Wall Street Greed Corrupted Its Bold Dream and Created a Financial Catastrophe". Gillian Tett has a PhD in social anthropology from Cambridge University, based on research conducted in the former Soviet Union in the early 1990s. She speaks French and Russian and has studied Japanese and Tajik.

Carlo Pellegrini
The Juggling Matrix – "How to Juggle Everything Business and Life Throws You!™" also known as "Juggling Your Priorities". Act your way to different thinking – by creating a matrix of new behaviors. Everyone has more balls in the air than they have time or hands to manage. Today's business culture is different from years gone by, so take an interactive journey to learn how to identify, prioritize and manage all the balls in your life.

Joshua David
Co-founder of Friends of High Line, a New York Altruistic Success Story. In his presentation, Joshua will offer the story behind how he and co-founder Robert Hammond began a grass-roots campaign to turn an abandoned rail structure on Manhattan's West Side into a landmark. For its creative design and ecological responsibility, the High Line has won international acclaim and popularity. Joshua has lived in Chelsea since 1986. Prior to turning his attention to High Line, he was a freelance magazine writer and freelance editor for Gourmet, Fortune, Travel + Leisure, Wallpaper and others. He is a member of the Advisory Council of Transportation Alternatives. He has a BA from the University of Pennsylvania.

Greg Dekker
In about 10 years, Generation Y will be the largest segment of the workforce. Their attitudes and behaviors are already challenging hospitality and workplace planners. This is changing both where and how work gets done, and how to find new customers. Expect some good and bad news as you see the eight major shifts coming with the arrival of Gen Y workers, new technology, and newfound worker mobility. Greg Dekker talks about work. He served as national sales director for a premier furnishings brand and leads consulting projects for Fortune 100 and Global 2,000 organizations focused on change management and experience design. He is author of The Creative Director, Shatter!, and the Say Anything immersive workshops.

Jessica Jackley
Founder of Kiva, the Revolutionary Microlending Website which launched in 2005. It now channels two million dollars every week to entrepreneurs in the world's poorest communities. So, how do you rapidly scale a global company while staying true to core values? Drawing on her eclectic background - she studied art and philosophy before earning an MBA - Jackley presents powerful new business lessons, reframing best practices in atypical, thought-provoking ways. Bright, energetic, and unapologetically optimistic about the power of business to change the world, Jackley holds an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, with certificates in Public and Global Management, as well as a B.A. in philosophy and political science from Bucknell University.

Bruce Ford
Senior vice president, Lodging Econometrics Bruce Ford is responsible for growth at Lodging Econometrics (LE), the industry authority for hotel real estate and the only firm that has an in-house lodging development staff that conducts global project research directly and re-verifies it with brands' corporate offices worldwide. LE has data on every new hotel construction project, all reflaggings and announced renovation projects, and sales comparables and valuation trends. Ford has developed LE's Call Management Program (CMP) and specializes in designing CMPs for vendors, traveling extensively to meet with marketing teams and field staff to develop customized programs to their specifications. He works with the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AH&LA) to provide leads and consulting services to AH&LA Allied Members. He also serves on the Allied Member Executive Committee within AH&LA. He graduated from Saint Joseph's College of Maine and is pursuing his M.B.A. at New Hampshire College.